Yeah no LMFAO...They weren't going to pay the contracts of the top guys whos contracts were owned by AOL/Time Warner....They did what they could do with what they had...Nobody with a brain would be paying millions upon millions to get the tip top guys....
Sting vs Taker, Booker T vs Rock, Austin vs Goldberg, Hogan vs Triple H, Steiner vs Batista. All in big brutal hard hitting matches would've been great.
Some of them happened. I'd say Austin vs Goldberg The Rock vs The People's Champion Diamond Dallas Page DDP Steiner Brothers vs the Brothers of Destruction Sting vs Mick Foley 3 Count vs Too Cool and Rikishi
And an invasion from a group that in kayfabe took its time to recover and get stronger before invading could’ve paid off rather than a desperate group of lower-mid card guys doing whatever they could to eat.
Or if the WWF coffers hadn't taken a $muli-million hit from the XFL failure just before, though even if he still had the money Vince might still have balked at paying a wrestler "entertainment" money.
Paul Heyman literally what said what I’ve been saying for years lol. The key guys weren’t there and Vince was too impatient to give it time..... Had he been patient it would’ve been the greatest storyline ever 🤦🏾♂️
Politics would still have gotten in the way. WWE guys were not going to put feelings aside to job to perceived WCW guys for the good of the business. The boys in the back just couldn't see the big picture. Instead, what they saw was why am I laying down for a 2nd or 3rd rate wrestler from a company that went under.
@@walker1984 ok and what is their choice? They do what they're told or they can go. This whole inmates running the asylum thing seemed to start around the wcw purchase. I would have had one of my "big names" particularly that overrated third stringer Triple H whom I would have jobbed to Booker! If I'm Vince I set the precedent "you refuse a job we will fire you or bret hart you. Nobody is bigger than this company especially you triple h you've never been a proven draw without mick Foley or rock or austin around you and booker t and scott Steiner have proven they can draw working with that nobody jeff Jarrett.. You do the job or you can pack your bags"
The angle was still hot with the guys they had. Vince and company just jobbed out the WCW guys and made it a McMahon family feud AGAIN. Only RVD and Booker survived WWE stupid ass invasion booking.
Plus he didn't have much of an ego. Sting is the only other person I believe didn't sign just because of the treatment. I feel if book was treated better he would have gone in.
@@Chukijay that sounds nice but let's not act like Booker T was given a high push right away😐 it still took years for him to get his respect and even then it wasn't until he became King Book-Ahh
@@FriendlyDiscourse I know this is a troll comment. But if this video is just up and you have a comment on it means that you are subscribed to this channel... twisted much?
19 years later, I still think the WWF could have make The Big Show a.k.a. The Giant join WCW. He was a Power Plant alumni and a former champion. He wasn't the biggest name, but it was a name. Who TF is Reno!?
A complete burial from start to finish and the big stars especially Sting knew Vince holds a grudge and they would be buried immediately upon arrival in WWF.
@@maxmeza4859 He was put in a storyline where despite Sting making it clear he was there to stop The Authority abusing its power the announcers and Triple H treated it like it was a WWE vs WCW feud and that Sting was WCW's last remnant trying to "avenge" it even though in his promo Sting said that since WCW had been out of business for 13 or 14 years by that point so it'd be stupid. Then they had Sting's kayfabe worst enemies, the NWO come out to help him and the supposed "anti authority rebels" DX helping the company's COO. And instead of having Sting win like they should have Triple H won.
I remember seeing this as a kid thinking this is one of the best things ever. Watching all those wrestlers face each other in the wwe and now realizing how much of a mess this angle was.
I remember the Invasion and was disapponted by not seeing many of the big players of WCW but I do remember Sean O'Haire - wasted potential for a wrestler of his size, skill and speed he could of been massive.
I honestly feel that it was a good idea. It was just due to egos, impatience, and executed poorly on the WWE's part. It could have been the biggest, but McMahon just choked on this clutch idea.
If Triple H hadn't spent the Invasion angle in rehab, Stephanie probably wouldn't have been made the ECW owner, but they apparently "needed" something for her to do.
I remember being in middle school during the Monday Night Wars era and my and my friends would talk about the hypothetical WWF vs WCW dream match ups we wished we could see like Sting vs The Undertaker, Sting vs Mankind, Goldberg vs Steve Austin, The Outsiders vs HHH/Shawn Michaels, The Rock vs Diamond Dallas Page, Harlem Heat vs The New Age Outlaws, Eric Bischoff vs Mr. McMahon, etc. If the actual merger angle had like even 2 of those matches at the time, it could have been incredible. I understand why it didn't happen at the time, but as mentioned in the video they should have waited a bit longer to try and get some of the actual WCW stars. Like Paul Heyman said, the WCW invasion roster was like something you'd see on a watered down version of Thunder. Also, making Stephanie the storyline CEO of ECW was just a slap in the face to the ECW brand and its fans. She was the total opposite of everything ECW was supposed to be.
I do agree the invasion was trash but you couldn’t expect them to wait 1-3 years for the contracts to expire and then do the invasion angle.. Goldberg didn’t come until 2003
Such a shame all the big name WCW wrestlers didn’t want to take part in the Invasion. I would have loved to see Goldberg take on Stone Cold or Sting battle The Undertaker. Those are two dream matches of mine right there.
Kurt Angle could have had great matches with: Sting Scott Steiner (a healthy Steiner) Mr. Perfect (He could still go; I hate that they made him a glorified jobber in 2002.) Even Kurt Angle vs. Goldberg could have been interesting. Granted, Goldberg couldn't work a 20 minute match. But they could have had a fun Technician vs. Destroyer match.
A true WCW/ECW Invasion against WWF/E should have been: Team WWF 1 VS WCW Stone Cold Steve Austin The Rock The Undertaker Shawn Michaels Mick Foley VS. Hollywood Hulk Hogan Kevin Nash Scott Hall Goldberg Sting Team WWF 2 VS ECW HHH Kane Kurt Angle Chris Jericho Chris Benoit VS. Rob Van Dam Sand Man Sabu Tommy Dreamer Tazz Also, a good DX VS. NWO Angle would have been great.
Can't blame them? W/e I hope Vince always takes care of Booker T for not sitting at home collecting a check. Booker T vs Rock and Booker T vs Austin was amazing wrestling that was taking place after the end of the attitude era.
I just imagined Stone Cold and The Rock at Wrestlemania. SC is going for the stunner and out of the crowd comes Goldberg and hits him with Spread and his the Rock with the Spinebuster. Imagine if this was the first time any WCW guy was seen in WWF
Vince could've started the invasion after WMX7, NOT paid the AOL contract and STILL been able to include Flair, nWo, Sting. Just make Van Dam, Shane, Booker, Page, and maybe Rhino or Raven the faces of the invasion and GIVE THEM WINS!!! Treat it like almost a face vs face angle. Bulls vs Lakers 91. Make them a viable threat and right when WWF looks like they're finally getting an upper hand, a Time Warner contract runs out, Vince signs them to WWFe, and now they're in the invasion tipping scales back into the alliance's favor. It could've been stretched across two or three years. BUT Shane has to be the ONLY WWF guy in the invasion. No Stephanie. No Austin. No Angle. No WWF guys. Only exception would be MAYBE Giant jumping ship, but that angle would have to include Eric, Hogan, and Nash for it to make sense.
Dude The NWO , Steiner, Goldberg And Ric Flair Came to The WWE A Year Later Hell Flair Got there the Next Night After the invasion Ended If they Had Waited A Year this Story Wouldve Lived Up To Expectations
This angle ruined DDP’s career, and was a diet version of what we all wanted. This was literally the opportunity to give us all what we fans had dreamed of! Just think of it: Hogan vs. Flair in the way it SHOULD have been done, with huge build and promotion. Sting versus Undertaker. Goldberg vs. Austin. Lesnar vs. Nash. And on and on, all the dream matches that PWI and the Observer had written hypothetical articles about for years prior... it could have been amazing, instead of just meh. I don’t blame the big names for sitting it out because their offers were insulting compared to their guaranteed money... McMahon should have spent. He could have built wrestling back up to what it was in the 1980s.
I enjoyed the Invasion saga. As a kid, I really felt threatened by WCW/ECW, thinkin' they were really takin' over. I didn't watch WCW/ECW, so I didn't know who these guys were.😅I just knew they were whoopin' our (WWF) ass every other night until The Rock came bacc. Kurt Angle put up a fight for the WWF, too💪
I was a die hard WWF fan back then and I remember getting VERY bored by this invasion angle. The problem was that I didn't watch WCW and found it boring, and my local TV company didn't carry the network that ECW was on, so I was never exposed to that either. So we had my favorite, and only wrestling show suddenly bursting at the seams with, and devoting all this time to wrestlers who I had no clue who they were, and just... wasn't interested in at the time. This storyline just sort of... assumed that you knew who everyone was, and didn't do any character building to really show fans like these who these guys were. There wasn't time. As far as I remember, it was all these bland guys coming in and attacking the WWF guys with barely any introductions, just assuming that we all knew who they were, or that we would be interested in them. If they had brought in the big, well known guys, a fan like me would have been entertained. But it was "Parade of B and C listers". I remember Raw and Smackdown becoming a slog for the most part, for me, around this time period. It was this angle that kind of caused me to lose interest in wrestling for quite a long time.
Here in Dublin IRELAND we did not get W,C,W we only got the W,W,F back then so when this all went down I had no idea who any of the W, C,W wrestler's where just the ones that had been in WWF I had a clue about.
Some of the ECW/WCW guys should be lucky that they didn't get signed to the WWF. Because look at what happened during and after the Invasion storyline? Most guys weren't getting used. They were getting buried. And Vince's greedy ass got all these past wrestlers likenesses and images on the WWE Network and he don't even pay them royalties for it. He just keeps collecting the money.
Disagree with waiting to do the invasion. Look at how many guys fizzled out quickly once they came over. Nash kept getting injured, hall was in his own personal problems, Goldberg thought he should beat everybody, Scott Steiner couldnt jump off the ring apron to do a basic move. These guys proved how much they couldn't go anymore.
I do wonder if Vinces thinking was we've got some mid carders we can milk for 12 months or so and then dump them to make room for the bigger WCW stars who would have to negotiate contracts with the only real player in town.
when it was announced story wise that Steph was the owner of ecw i took a very long vacation from wrestling. i didnt tune in again until the nwo angle.
And apologies for multiple posts but even if they waited on Nitro till Atlanta it probably would've presented a false sense of security. They get cheered in Atlanta but get the Tacoma reaction everywhere else. It says alot too that ECW's addition got a better reaction than WCW
Anybody who thinks that Vince McMahon wouldn't have fed his ego off the guys who were trying to put him out of buisness for the past 5/6 years is delusional
The entire invasion boiling down to more McMahon family drama was appalling (if entirely expected), but I always did like the WCW logo they came up with. Not as good as the classic, but definitely better than that weird-looking silver and black thing WCW was using it's last couple years.
But how do you keep the interest between the last ever Nitro and 1-2 years later when there is an invasion? The angle was hot right there and then, not ages later.
I actually believe that Wrestlemania X7 is the end of the Attitude. The moment Stone Cold became heel, the momentum was over. And seeing Austin in 2001 turn babyface & then back as a heel again for this Invasion Angle, could never bring back WWE’s peak ever again
Yeah. I remember when I was a kid watching the invasion, and just seeing how the WWF was not the same anymore. I saw how the storylines declined and the overall product just started going downhill from there.
@@leonarddillon256 I was never a fan of the "What!?" Stone Cold Steve Austin or Heel for that matter. He was so good when he was just the ass whippin Texas rattlesnake.
This Austin heel turn sealed the deal of the best of times.. this storyline could have save Wrestlemania X7s Heel turn.. that was the dagger, the Invasion to Austin turning heel once more too much
The word "Invasion" should never be associated with this angle. Jobber and mid-card talent hoping to have jobs, while Vince squats and takes a massive dumb over the wCw and ECW brands angle. Not as catchy but way more accurate.
Agreed, even if just unconsciously, Vince was going to make his brand look superior, the real "War" that happened between the brands in the mid to late 90s was real and Bischoff (who come to think of it SHOULD have been there to head up the WCW part!) almost put McMahon out of business. I mean I know that McMahon still probably held a grudge over them because of that. Another thing I think was really stupid is why did "Team WWF" have Chris Jericho on it, shouldn't he have defected to the WCW or something, that was dumb and it would have made more sense to have him be on team WCW since they were lacking star power any way!
@@kevinlee9929 Count me in with those people. I was a loyal wrestling fan from 1983, and became a Hulkamanic after he defeated the Iron Sheik in '84. I loved switching between WWF and WCW during the Monday night wars, seeing who jumped ship to the competition, and my wife even bought me shares of WWF stock for my birthday when they went public. Unfortunately, I saw the WWF get too big for their britches and steady go downhill after the purchase and terrible "invasion" angle. In the end I haven't watched WWF programming since the early 2000s. Such a shame.
@@kevinlee9929 are you serious? But that was back in the day like 04-05 I was like 7 and Eddie Guerrero vs Chris benoit storyline was great amongst other storylines.
They honestly could've used ppl like Raven and RVD In bigger roles but they we're reduced to Hardcore Title and raven was reduced to Heat, Raven was perfect he was a big deal in both ECW and WCW.
Vinces ego is so big that he couldn't stand to put any talent over that he himself didn't create. I know he was a great businessman but I can't help but think the WWE could be alot bigger if someone else was at the reigns. It's not a coincidence that every single one of Vinces business ventures outside of wrestling have failed dismally.
it still to this day boggles the mind to think what if Shane took over instead of Stephanie? If the Alliance won he could have turned the whole WWE into a WCW kind of company being advised by Paul Heyman and Eric Bischoff. The fans would have loved it and it would have been an amazing end to Shane's feud with Vince.
@Misguided Angel Most of the guys you mentioned had a lot of potential and more years in the business than you even know about. And that wasn't even the point. Did you even read my post? Clearly not.
I remember the raw after king of the ring Edge vs Billy Gunn. Billy hit a jackhammer on Edge and the crow started chanting for Goldberg. Also I forget which Raw but during one of Shane and Stephanie's many long winded rambling alliance promos on Raw you could hear the crowd chanting "we want Sting" lmao
A few thoughts: 1. As per usual, great video man. I look for your content weekly. 2. Re Booker: the more I learn about this guy (and watch back his matches/promos), the more I like him. Taking the risk to join the WWE early was a good one to take, even if the WWE didn't give him the push they should have. 3. On Waiting for the stars to push the Invasion angle: I think that would have run the risk of the interest fizzling out. A year is a long time to wait when everyone is expecting the angle. There's something to be said for striking when the iron is hot. I think it was a lose/lose situation for the WWE. That said, 4. Burying guys like DDP, who was one of a very few legit stars in WCW who made the move was nothing more than the WWE shooting itself in the foot. I also agree that having Stephanie "own" ECW didn't make any sense. 5. I'm looking forward to Part 2!
Let's say the example is ball park accurate: Vince won't pay Goldberg $$ in his prime, but rather overpay him in 2019 when he was just a shell of his former self.
@@Coldstone47034 yeah but he really should've been treated better the first time around. But old trips just had to have his way. They killed him after the rock died once he lost the chamber match
@@showtimesportsmedia6906 the problem was Goldberg got exposed. He wasn't able to have a WWF style main event match. He wasn't going to be allowed to just come in and squash top guys in 2 minutes. Having said that he still ran through everyone except HHH and even then look how strong Goldberg was at the elimination chamber. He destroyed Jericho and HBk and it took all of evolution to beat him.
The best thing that happened during the Invasion Angle was when Stone Cold gave Kurt Angle that tiny cowboy hat, and I'm not even sure if that happened during the actual Invasion. Proves how crappy it was.
I will say Booker T made a good career move and made more money long term and proving his talent over and over to WWE....as a kid I was a WWF vs WCW guy and Booker T quickly became one of my favs
It wouldn't have mattered if all the top talent like sting and Goldberg came over too. Vince woukd have squashed them anyway. Look what he done to DDP and booker T
@@Robman0908 "This", what? Youre saying it WWF was able to get the nWo, Sting, Goldberg, Flair, Savage,Luger,etc to join DDP and Booker T, they wouldve been "squashed like jobbers"? lmao, youre an idiot
There’s many things that bother me about this train wreck of an angle, but seeing Rock say “who are you?” and seeing Austin stomp Taz like he was a jobber was enough to make me done with it
Vince wanted to destroy wcw that is the main reason why he didn’t wait for the bigger talent he wanted to make sure nobody would want anything to do with the wcw again and I think it worked
Саша I liked 2003 that’s it, 2002 wasn’t that great, the NWO invasion was terrible, and they lost all their major baby faces by the end of the year. 2003 was great with Stone Cold and Rock returning
@@roodypoochrisw Triple H & HBK in 02 made that year memorable for me, as was Lesnar's push & the dynamic of the brand split, and introductions of rookies that actually went somewhere (Lesnar, Orton, Cena, Batista). I actually prefer much of it to 2001 which felt more like a stale version of the Attitude era for me. They really did drop the ball with the nWo 2.0 though, but Bischoff as GM was great.
@@NitroNEXT Well yeah I agree it was much better than 2001, and I also really liked the HHH vs HBK fued, but other than that, it was pretty lame. Triple H and Chris Jericho had a terrible rivalry, Hogan became champ (I dont like the idea of super old superstars winning champions), and Rock and Austin were gone by the end of the year leaving us with Lesnar as the top star who wasnt that great in my personal opinion.
You just keep coming up with the best content when it comes to Wrestling. I'm glad to see you put so much time, passion and effort into your channel my dude.
0:17 Lol Hearing Vince McMahon’s theme at the beginning is a suitable start to show that Invasion Angle wasn’t about WCW/ECW vs WWF, but instead another McMahon family feud. 😂
When Shane announced on that last WCW nitro that he had bought WCW and had beaten Vince to the punch in buying them, the reaction was absolutely brilliant. Especially by Vince. Unfortunately it was all downhill after that. One of the biggest missed opportunities ever by the WWF. If they had either waited for the big stars or even bought out their time Warner contracts they would have had a great storyline for a year or more. They could have struck gold. That they didn’t was down to the impatience of the WWF management.
Aside from all of the great matches that came out of this, the entire so called invasion angle was a complete disaster and became all about the Mcmahons again The WCW / ECW alliance may have won a few big matches here and there but they were mostly booked to look completely weak, to make matters worse WWF wrestlers started "jumping ship" to join the enemy's side including their biggest star Stone Cold which was completely stupid. By the time we got to Survivor Series, it was mostly WWF vs WWF with 1 ECW guy and 1 WCW guy. What hurt a lot of this was we didn't have any of the big names like Goldberg, Sting and the NWO. If Vince waited until 2002 or 2003 when we had these guys in the company then they could have done the invasion angle and it would have worked out so much better than the car crash we got instead. We could have had tons of dream matches and it is such a shame that things didn't work out well because with time, care and good booking, this could have done huge business but sadly it is what it is.
I really enjoyed the Invasion, I never watch WCW so didn't know who I was missing out on, I just knew this was another company of new guys coming in and taking over, it was exciting, I'd never heard of Nash, Hogan, Goldberg, Flair etc. so I didn't know these invaders weren't "top" guys.
I remember being so excited about the invasion. I watched the invasion PPV and as the show went on, I got more and more fed up with it. The main events conclusion made me go "oh, come on!"🤦♂️😂😂
I believe they jumped the gun on the angle cuz the roster was being spread thin by mid 2001. HHH and Benoit were out with injuries, Rock was gone making a movie, they were running out of bodies and thus Vince panicked a little. I will say tho, the angle did help elevate guys like Angle and Jericho to more main even level. And obviously it helped guys like Booker and RVD on the other side.
